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Randy Porter is the chief of
Bonaparte Indian Band
, a small community about 80 kilometres west of Kamloops, B.C., and he collects nothing — no salary, no honorarium, not even any travel expenses — in exchange for his elected duties.

“I’m blown away by the amount of money that is being paid to some of the chiefs. Just blown away,” says Porter, whose own band has seen its share of financial troubles.

“That was my choice. It’s just my way of putting back, as opposed to taking,” says Porter, who already has a full-time paying job as an accountant at Thompson Rivers University.

Like many Canadians, Porter has seen the headlines about oversized salaries — such as the $914,000, including an $800,000 bonus, paid to another B.C. chief, Ron Giesbrecht of Kwikwetlem First Nation, which caused a stir when it was revealed in documents posted online under the
First Nations Financial Transparency Act
last fall.

However, a Toronto Star analysis of the salaries of chiefs published so far show that the Giesbrecht payment is one of the outliers.

All but 28 of the 582 First Nations subject to the legislation now have their audited consolidated financial statements and schedules of remuneration and expenses posted on the government website, and the data shows the median total of salary and honorarium earned by chiefs in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014, excluding travel expenses, was $60,000.

While there were five chiefs who took home more than $200,000, excluding travel expenses, there were 42 chiefs who received less than $10,000, including eight who received nothing.

The data includes salary and honorarium information for 647 chiefs, which is greater than the number of First Nations communities that submitted the information because some chiefs either began or finished their time in office during the fiscal year.

Pro-rating the salaries and honorarium so that chiefs who served during only part of the year can be compared to those who were there the entire year puts the median annual salary at $64,697.

The government has
imposed sanctions
on First Nations that have yet to comply with the Financial Transparency Act.

“I think it should tell you that First Nations chiefs and councils are paid fairly,” says Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde.

“We have some exceptions, but there are also some that are at the opposite end of the scale, like even below the poverty line,” Bellegarde says. “You should not take the one or two examples to the extreme and paint all the chiefs with the same brush.”

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which for years called for greater transparency when it comes to First Nations financial information, points out the income is tax-free but it also stresses the outliers do not tell the whole story.

“Please don’t consider the figures below as ‘the norm’ — plenty of aboriginal politicians don’t make anywhere near the amounts in the table,” Colin Craig, its Prairie director, wrote in a
Dec. 11 blog post
comparing some of the highest salaries to the gross incomes of nearby municipal politicians.

“But just as we see with discussions about compensation and benefits for off-reserve politicians, it’s the outliers that receive more attention,” Craig wrote.

The Conservative government says the legislation makes First Nations band councils more accountable to their members and brings in the same level of transparency expected from other governments.

“It helps ensure that First Nation community members have the information necessary to make informed decisions about their leadership and it creates a better environment for private sector investment which could lead to greater economic development opportunities and improve the quality of life for First Nation communities,” said an emailed statement from the Aboriginal Affairs department, which refused to grant an interview for this story.

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